Howl at the Moon

“Fate is nothing but the deeds committed in a prior state of existence.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Safety and Care

Uncompromising independence, rugged individualism, and limitless personal freedom were once essential to the American character. According to popular American folklore, they still are. We have some reservations.

Somehow, for the greater good of us all, Washington has become a sort of money sucking vortex over the last 100 years. At the Capitol Building sits a cadre of legislatures and an army of staffers operating with a devout singleness of purpose…to work up new laws to take your money and steal your freedom. This, of course, is all for your safety and care.

New rules, proposed rules, and notices are published daily in the Federal Register. A quick read of the daily publication will enlighten and alarm you to the vast array of agencies, departments, and commissions and their vast array of daily drivel.

Yet it’s not just the federal government you must contend with. Some state and local governments are even worse. In Maryland, for instance, residents are taxed when it rains on their property.

In Bellingham, Washington, like many cities, there are strict limits to how high and how far back a retaining wall can be installed. Yard hedges are under assault too. What’s more, in New York, they restrict how much soda pop you can guzzle down.

Protection from the Latest Bugaboo

No doubt, America was at one time the land of the free. Obviously, that was long before 47.7 million citizens began using Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards to purchase their daily bread. Similarly, that was back when you could still buy bottled water without having undercover federal agents pull their guns on you and throw you in the slammer.

These days the ideas that roused America’s War of Independence are, alas, just ideas. Limited government and individual liberty were long ago squandered for big government and collectivism. Gone are the days when you could earn a living without the IRS making a federal case out of it. So, too, gone are the days when you could send an email without some government busybody logging it into a master database.

The remarkable thing is no one seems to really care about the ongoing loss of freedom. Americans have grown accustomed to the repeated denial of their constitutional rights and the micro regulation of how they conduct their private lives. It really is all the people know…it has gone on their entire lives.

Public indignation has been replaced with complacency. Outside of gawking at news headlines, there’s been no tangible public reaction as far as we can tell to Edward Snowden’s recent revelations of the NSA’s unlawful interception of people’s private communications. These are the descendants of the same Americans who fervently rebuked John Adams for the Alien and Seditions Act of 1789.

Nonetheless, the lack of public outrage should come as no surprise. The people consented to TSA boob squeezers several years back like obedient dogs. In the year 2013, they’ll let NSA voyeurs trample on their Fourth Amendment rights as long as it promises to keep them safe from the latest bugaboo.

Howl at the Moon

This, unfortunately, is but one more example of American’s loss of independence and personal freedom. But we won’t dwell on it any more today. Independence Day is just around the corner. If nothing more, it’s a great day to set aside our fuddy-duddy predilections and celebrate not what is…but what we’d like to be.

So what do we care if our government is broke and our leaders are imposters?

In short…we don’t. And even if we did care…what could we really do about it?

Nothing other than what we already do. That is, we look on and ogle, and smirk with amusement and hilarity.

It really doesn’t matter one way or the other if we resist our leaders as they bankrupt the nation and take away our freedoms under the pretense of saving us from ourselves. For it was destine to happen…and who are we to stand in the way?

Regardless, our wife will be just as fetching and beautiful, our coffee will taste just as bold or bitter, and our back will still hurt after a long day’s work. The sun will still shine. The birds will still sing. And the flowers will still bloom.

So even as the nation slips, and Joe Biden smiles while he fleeces us for our own good…we smile back and are determined to celebrate it.

Thus in the spirit of constructive mischief, and in violation of city ordinance, we’ll light off a Piccolo Pete and we’ll howl at the moon.